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Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Cladus: Craniata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Cladus: Reptiliomorpha
Cladus: Amniota
Classis: Reptilia
Cladus: Eureptilia
Cladus: Romeriida
Subclassis: Diapsida
Cladus: Sauria
Infraclassis: Lepidosauromorpha
Superordo: Lepidosauria
Ordo: Squamata
Subordo: Scincomorpha
Superfamilia: Scincoidea

Familia: Scincidae
Genus: Prasinohaema
Species: P. flavipes - P. parkeri - P. prehensicauda - P. semoni - P. virens
Name

Prasinohaema
Vernacular names

Prasinohaema (Greek: "green blood") is a genus of skinks characterized by having green blood. This condition is caused by an excess buildup of the bile pigment biliverdin. [1] Prasinohaema species have plasma biliverdin concentrations approximately 1.5-30 times greater than fish species with green blood plasma and 40 times greater than humans with green jaundice.[1] The benefit provided by the high pigment concentration is unknown, but one possibility is that it protects against malaria.[2][3]
Contents

1 Geographic range
2 Species
3 Etymology
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links

Geographic range

Species in the genus Prasinohaema are endemic to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.[4]
Species

Species in the genus include:[4]

Prasinohaema flavipes (Parker, 1936) – common green tree skink
Prasinohaema parkeri (M.A. Smith, 1937) – Parker's green tree skink
Prasinohaema prehensicauda (Loveridge, 1945) – prehensile green tree skink
Prasinohaema semoni (Oudemans, 1894) – Semon's green tree skink
Prasinohaema virens (W. Peters, 1881) - green-blooded skink, green tree skink

Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than Prasinohaema.
Etymology

The specific names, parkeri and semoni, are in honor of English herpetologist Hampton Wildman Parker and German zoologist Richard Wolfgang Semon, respectively.[5]
References

Austin, Christopher C.; Jessing, Kevin W. (1994). "Green-blood pigmentation in lizards". Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Physiology. 109 (3): 619–626. doi:10.1016/0300-9629(94)90201-1.
Grens, Kerry (2018-05-16). "Lizards' Green Blood Evolved Four Times". The Scientist. Retrieved 2018-05-18.
Malhotra, Anita (23 May 2018). "Some lizards have green blood that should kill them – and scientists can't work out why". The Independent.
Genus Prasinohaema at The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.

Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Prasinohaema parkeri, p. 200; P. semoni, p. 240).

Further reading

Greer AE (1974). "The genetic relationships of the Scincid lizard genus Leiolopisma and its relatives". Australian J. Zool. Supplementary Series 22 (31): 1-67. (Prasinohaema, new genus, p. 12).

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